World Hum | Weblog | Travel | Hot Americans on Television Botching Geography Questions

Travel dispatches from a shrinking planet

Like Writing on Water

In western Uganda, Christopher Vourlias met Colin, a farmer and poet who questioned the purpose of life while happily revealing the meaning of nohandika ha maiise.

7.15.08

My Senegalese Cousin, the Rice-Loving Pig

When the woman selling peanuts at a Samba Dia market learned the Senegalese name adopted by Katie Krueger, negotiations took an insulting turn

How Should I Spend My Time in Spain?

Vagabonding traveler Rolf Potts answers your questions about travel

Paul Theroux: Invisible Man on a Ghost Train

Jim Benning asks the author of “Ghost Train to the Eastern Star” about his new book, aging and the challenge of disappearing in the age of the BlackBerry

Eat Ceviche in Lima

Grab a Cusque�a and get comfortable. As Nicholas Gill explains, a trip to a Peruvian cevicher�a can be an all-day immersion in good conversation and raw seafood.

Unsentimental Journeys: Wrestling With Paul Theroux

Bronwen Dickey considers “Ghost Train to the Eastern Star: 28,000 Miles in Search of the Great Railway Bazaar”

My Travels, My Feet

After taking one too many headless torso shots of herself, solo traveler Sophia Dembling started snapping photos of her feet around the world, from the Grand Canyon to Red Square

Affairs to Remember—On-Screen and Off

From “Roman Holiday” to “Before Sunrise,” Hollywood has understood the appeal of the overseas fling. Eva Holland explains the staying power of the big screen Euro-romance.

Seven Reasons to Have a Foreign Fling

Sure, having an overseas romance is fun. But Terry Ward points out seven other benefits to cross-border love, mon petit chou.

TRAVEL BLOG: Hot Americans on Television Botching Geography Questions

Susan Jacoby on Americans’ ‘Hostility to Knowledge’

Kellie Pickler may be the obvious mascot, but Susan Jacoby says American “hostility to knowledge” is not just confined to adorable blondes who think Europe is a country and “Hung[a]ry” is not. In her new book, The Age of American Unreason, she argues that a poor educational system and religious fundamentalism’s hatred of reason have helped turn many of us into isolationist dummies.

By Joanna Kakissis • 2.15.08
Weblog • Geography for Fun and Profit • Global Village • Hot Americans on Television Botching Geography Questions • United States
Permalink • Comments (4)

In Defense of Hot Americans Botching Geography Questions on Television

Well, sort of. I’m not going to say that Miss Teen South Carolina’s near-incoherent ramble about education, maps, and “the Iraq” has been misunderstood, or that Kellie Pickler was actually referring to the recent expansion of the Schengen zone when she wondered whether Europe was a country. And I’m certainly not going to claim that I didn’t laugh out loud when I first saw those videos. But something about the vicious glee and satisfaction people around the world have gotten out of the two clips makes me want to go to bat for my fellow blondes in distress.

By Eva Holland • 12.21.07
Weblog • Geography for Fun and Profit • Hot Americans on Television Botching Geography Questions
Permalink • Comments (13)

And the No. 2 Most Memorable Quote of 2007 is…

According to the editor of the Yale Book of Quotations, it’s Miss Teen South Carolina’s “tortuous” and now-infamous answer to a question about Americans being unable to locate the U.S. on a map:

By Michael Yessis • 12.19.07
Weblog • Geography for Fun and Profit • Hot Americans on Television Botching Geography Questions • Tres Loco • United States
Permalink • Comments (5)

Stop the Presses: Miss Belgium Doesn’t Speak Dutch

No, she speaks French, and that’s why she was booed by some of the 3,400 people in attendance at the Miss Belgium contest in Antwerp. Turns out, 20-year-old Alizee Poulicek has spent half her life in in Czech Republic, so I’m guessing she speaks Czech, too. Is not speaking Dutch really such a problem, Belgium? I know you have your language issues, but come on, at least she doesn’t think Europe is a country.

Photo: AP.

By Jim Benning • 12.17.07
Weblog • Hot Americans on Television Botching Geography Questions
Permalink • Comments (1)

Another Hot American on Television Botches a Geography Question

We may have a new travel trend here. At the very least, we’ve got ourselves a new World Hum travel blog category: Hot Americans on Television Botching Geography Questions. First came Miss Teen South Carolina. This time around it’s American Idol’s Kellie Pickler, who appeared as a contestant on the U.S. television game show, “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?” The answer, as you will see, seems clear.

By Michael Yessis • 11.30.07
Weblog • Audio/Video • Europe • Hot Americans on Television Botching Geography Questions
Permalink • Comments (14)

Maps, Mumbles and Miss Teen South Carolina

I don’t want to pile on Lauren Caitlin Upton, the Miss Teen USA pageant contestant from South Carolina who botched her answer to the question, “Recent polls have shown a fifth of Americans can’t locate the U.S. on a world map. Why do you think this is?” As of this morning, the video of her awkward response has been viewed more than 13 million times at YouTube. Now, the Web site Maps for US has given her assertion that “some people out there in our nation don’t have maps” some additional infamy, parodying telethons and asking people to donate maps.